The link between guanxi and customer–salesperson collusion: The case of Taiwan’s insurance industry

Abstract

Purpose

In the insurance industry, it is common for the insurance salespeople to sell insurance products to friends, relatives and associates. However, permitting (or encouraging) salespeople to sell insurance through personal relationships may result in some ethical conflicts. For example, some insurance salespeople may help relatives or friends with pre-existing medical conditions buy the health insurance. Previous studies on insurance fraud have rarely focused on this problem. Thus, this study aims to investigate the effects of guanxi (guanxi refers to the durable social connections and relationships a Chinese person uses to exchange favors for a specific purpose) on the salespeople’s acceptance of customer–salesperson collusions. Two types of guanxi are discussed in the research. The author further focuses on how the ethical attitudes and intentions are affected by the salespeople’s guanxi considerations, consequence evaluations, perception of peers’ attitudes, perceived harm to other policyholders and perceived probability of being caught.

Design/methodology/approach

Full-time life insurance salespeople from Taiwan were surveyed, and partial least squares method was used in the study.

Findings

The results showed that the types of guanxi, guanxi considerations, consequence evaluations, perception of peers’ attitudes and perceived harm to other policyholders were important in forming the salespeople’s ethical decision-making in the customer–salesperson collusions.

Originality/value

This is the first time that guanxi has been studied as the factor influencing collusive behaviors in the problems of insurance fraud. The results challenged an established belief that the insurance salespeople should first target close relations as they build their portfolio of customers.

Citation

Tseng, L.-M. (2016), "The link between guanxi and customer–salesperson collusion: The case of Taiwan’s insurance industry", International Journal of Conflict Management, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 353-378. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCMA-08-2015-0049